python equivalent of R table

Pandas has a built-in function called value_counts().

Example: if your DataFrame has a column with values as 0's and 1's, and you want to count the total frequencies for each of them, then simply use this:

df.colName.value_counts()

A Counter object from the collections library will function like that.

from collections import Counter

x = [[12, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [6, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [0, 6], [0, 6], [12, 6], [6, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [6, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 6], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [6, 0]]

# Since the elements passed to a `Counter` must be hashable, we have to change the lists to tuples.
x = [tuple(element) for element in x]

freq = Counter(x)

print freq[(12,6)]

# Result:  28

Supposing you need to convert the data to a pandas DataFrame anyway, so that you have

L = [[12, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [6, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [0, 6], [0, 6], [12, 6], [6, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [6, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [0, 6], [12, 0], [0, 6], [12, 6], [6, 0], [12, 6], [12, 6], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [0, 6], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [12, 0], [12, 6], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 6], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [12, 0], [6, 0], [6, 0]]
df = pd.DataFrame(L, columns=('a', 'b'))

then you can do as suggested in this answer, using groupby.size():

tab = df.groupby(['a', 'b']).size()

tab looks as follows:

In [5]: tab
Out[5]:
a   b
0   6    19
6   0    20
12  0    33
    6    28
dtype: int64

and can easily be changed to a table form with unstack():

In [6]: tab.unstack()
Out[6]:
b      0     6
a
0    NaN  19.0
6   20.0   NaN
12  33.0  28.0

Fill NaNs and convert to int at your own leisure!